Personal Narrative: My Personal Identity

What truly shapes you? Throughout ones’ life an individual may have many contributing factors that shape them into who they are and what they will become. In my life the greatest factors that have influenced me in what kind of identity I see for myself have been my race and heritage. -Being Mexican American in a location that is predominantly Caucasian is not an easy task, especially considering one lives in the most stereotypical place a Hispanic can live. For many years lived in the mobile home park, however considering the previous places I had lived in before it wasn’t as inadequate. There had been the one bedroom apartment, the small basement, and let’s not forget the single ten by twelve room. After having lived in such various and diverse places one begins to gain an appreciation for the little things. More than anything however, all the struggles I faced caused my ambition to grow greater and greater.

Some could say is that I was blessed with opportunities along the way which lead to my current success, anyone who could dare say that does not know my story. Growing up I quickly realized that when you are part of a minority opportunities do not come as easily as they do to others. Almost a decade ago when I first arrived in Utah as a young boy I was placed in a program called ESL. It was to help children of Hispanic decent become more efficient in reading and writing, the only problem was that I did not need the program. I was very fluent in English in both reading and writing often better than my Caucasian peers. The only reason that I was placed into the program was because my name was Oscar Rodriguez. It was then that I became aware that I would always be labeled as something unequal to my peers around